The Irish Catholic poet, essayist and playwright, Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature died on Friday in Dublin. He was 74. The oldest of nine children, Heaney grew up in a country plagued by sectarian violence and fell away from Catholicism as a young man, but the faith was always present in his work. His words were an inspiration and a comfort. Where Lazarus is poor no longer, may he find eternal rest. In his honor read the poem Elegy for a Still-Born Child from his collection Opened Ground, after the jump:

In 2005 Born into Brothels won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. The film tells the story of eight children, growing up in Calcutta’s Red Light District. The filmmakers gave the children cameras and taught them how to take photos in order to document their lives and bring attention to the plight of prostitutes and trafficked women in India. The children are, of course, a delight. Heartbreakingly beautiful. Given the Pope’s recent comments about human trafficking being one of the greatest human right’s issues of our day, we highly recommend this film. Watch the trailer after the jump:

A rape victim wrote to Pope Francis and the Pope responded by calling her on the phone and telling her, “You are not alone.” Though the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics receives thousands of letters a day, he tries to respond personally to many of them. Personalism in action. Read the story in National Catholic Register here: Rape Victim Consoled by Surprise Call from Pope Francis

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Jordan Weissmann writes for The Atlantic about true workaholics and the costs of their addiction. “A study of college undergraduates found that children of workaholics scored 72 percent higher on measures of depression than children of alcoholics.” Read it here: Is There Really Such a Thing as a ‘Workaholic’?

Syrian-born Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham warns the US against armed intervention in his country, saying, “It has brought us to the tragedy we are now living in Syria.” Read the entire story from Catholic News Service here: Syrian-born patriarch: ‘Enough with the intervention’

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Quotes

The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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